Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 03:15:14 EST
From: Dakotajoe2000@cs.com
Subject: Hanging By A Moment, Chapter 2

	This story is copyrighted and the sole possession of the author.
No duplication is premitted without the express written consent of the
author.  It will contain graphic discription of consensual male to male sex
and may be offensive to some.  If this is not something you wish to read,
please look elsewhere.  The first installment of this story is true so the
names, with the exception of mine, have been changed to protect the
innocent.  Future installments are pure imagination on my part and cannont
be held liable against me.  Hanging By A Moment is the title of a song by
Lifehouse. Constructive email can be sent to Dakotajoe2000@cs.com

Hanging by a Moment, Chapter Two

	The cold wind whipped around the building and down the alley.  It
was a narrow passage and the sharpness of the wind was intensified by the
walls that climbed high into the night sky.  Nick pulled his coat tighter
around his body to retain some of the warmth but not so tight that it
restricted his body from free movement.  He hated this part of the evening.
The keys to the door weren't working properly tonight and he was having to
force the door to open. Several trys with the keys and a few swear words
later he gave up. Shear frustration took advantage and he kicked the door
with everything he had.  It flew open and nearly knocked him back into the
fence.
	Work quickly commenced.  He unloaded one of the pallets off the
truck and wheeled it into the building.  At least the lift gate worked
tonight; he'd had too many occassions where he had to unload the truck
manually.  It was a light night, one pallet and he was done.  He locked the
doors again for the evening and started back to the comfort of the cab.  A
deep cough resonated into the night and he had to brace himself against the
wall so he didn't lose a lung with it.
	Nick leaned back softly into the seat and exhaled.  Tonight's work
was almost over and then it was the weekend.  He guided the truck out onto
the street and headed towards home.  The light flahed from amber to red and
he eased the truck to a stop.  The light at Laskey and Secor roads was so
long he had a tendency to drift off into thought.....

	Thanksgiving was quickly approaching.  Things had been extremely
hectic since returning from Seattle.  I had an average birthday overall.
It was similar to my 18th.  Things hadn't been going to well at home back
then.  I had failed out of Virginia Tech and dad wanted to know why.  I
couldn't really tell him.  I hadn't been going to class for nearly six
weeks and there wasn't a good reason.  I enjoyed watching Craig play
volleyball in the quad.  He had a beautiful body and if the sun was out,
he'd play shirtless.  I spent countless hours in front of the window
admiring him.  My roommate would surely have known I was gay just from me
sitting there, but he was too busy out drinking and hanging with his buds
to notice.  When I came home that summer with my grade card, dad wasn't
happy.  We argued through most of August and September.  I took a "get away
from all of this" trip to Maine in October that year.  I said it was for my
birthday and they believed me.
	I wanted to move.  That was why I went.  I looked at Provincetown
and was unimpressed.  That type of lifestyle is what gives young gay men
the sterotype we so happily take upon ourselves.  I traveled farther up the
coast, to Boston.  It seemed too large and snobby for me, as a mid-western
farm boy . . so I ended up in Maine.  I fell in love with this sea-coast
town of Damariscotta, just north of Portland.  I had just turned 18 and my
eyes were full of wonder.  It would be easy to move here, just pack my
things and go.  Yeah.
	Circumstances dictated otherwise.  I found myself looking for an
apartment in Columbus and the move never materialized.  I was happy in my
new apartment, my first apartment.  Mom and dad were upset and that pleased
me.  It wasn't so much the idea of moving out as it was usurping their
authority.  I had done it and there wasn't anything they could do to stop
it.  I lived comfortably in that apartment for three years.  I traveled
anywhere I wanted to, as often as I wanted to.  I was a free man.
	The cost of keeping up an apartment though can be pretty hefty.  I
ended up working full time to cover expenses and cut my schooling at a
local community college back to part time.  Dad was proud of me, I'm sure.
I was at the top of my class and accepted into a highly regarded
architecture program at a prestigious east coast school and now I was
working full time as a cashier at a local supermarket.
	By the time my 22nd birthday rolled around, I began to be
unsettled.  The novelty of having a first apartment had worn off and now I
wanted to get on with my life.  The excitement of pissing off my parents
was no more.  Now I did that simpy because it would be of benefit to me in
some way; I took little pleasure in it.  I wanted to be in school full
time, and at an accredited four year university or college, so I started
looking.  Ohio State has never been an option to me.  The people have eyes
only for themselves and fail to see the larger picture.  I will never knock
State for their academics, just the failed realization of what could be.
Yes, Columbus will ALWAYS be a cow town.
	Jason was my answer.  I could afford to live in Seattle with a
roommate, namely Chris, and I could attend University of Washington.  It
seemed to work out well, in my mind at least.  That was where the problem
lay, my mind.  Jason consumed my thoughts and there didn't appear to be a
chance between us.  I proceded with plans for a move at any cost.  I wanted
to get away from Columbus, my parents and remnants of a life I didn't
enjoy.  As was the case with my 18th birthday, it didn't work out.  I ended
up signing a new lease with the same management company I was with
previously.  It was in a different part of town and I was hoping that it
would be a temporary fix for things.  It worked for a while.
	Christmas was now days away and I was comfortably settled into my
new apartment.  I had been talking with a young man from Indiana but had a
gut feeling that things weren't working between us.  That was okay, as I
was prepared to move on.  Jason had been on my mind less and less as the
holidays approached.  I was busy working and shopping and just relishing
the merriment of the season.  I spent a great deal of time on-line in
December, talking with many of the new friends I had made since deciding to
stay here in town for now.  Email was common in my box and I was always
eager to get it.  One sitting in my box on Christmas Eve bothered me.

	Dear Nick,

	Thanks for the emails you've been sending.  I wanted you to know
that I've been reading them and simply haven't had the time to reply.
Well, not really, but I didn't think it was okay for us to keep talking
like we were once David and I had that fight back in October.  Did I tell
you we broke up that night that you went to Westport?  He still calls every
now and then but I get tired of talking to him and I think he knows that.
Anyway, I'm headed home for the holidays.  Mom and dad want to see me and I
think it would be good to get away for awhile.  I know you understand that.

Later man,
Jason

	I was taken aback.  He had been thinking about me. I didn't really
know what to do at this point.  I still had feelings for Jason and I'm
pretty sure I always would, but I had moved on.  Things were changing.  I
was hoping to get involved with someone I had just met and it seemed he
felt the same way.  We had planned a quick little getaway together, down to
the Gulf shores of Alabama.  He was flying in to Port Columbus later that
afternoon and I was to go pick him up there. American Airways flight 8715,
from Pittsburgh, connected to Seattle.

 	Nick's bleary eyes twinged as the light turned green.  Not only was
the light incredibly long but that horrible green burrowed it's way deep
into his retinas.  He was off towards Findlay and home, Jason and his email
being left at the intersection.